Adorable were an English

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band, formed in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

in 1990. The band consisted of vocalist and guitarist Pete Fijalkowski, guitarist Robert Dillam, bassist Stephen 'Wil' Williams and drummer Kevin Gritton.

History

Adorable formed in September 1990. Prior to that the band was known as The Candy Thieves, and their only record included an early version of "Homeboy" and another song "Underwater" that fitted the then-current

baggy Baggy was a name given to a British alternative dance genre popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with many of the artists referred to as "baggy" being bands from the Madchester scene. History The genesis of indie-dance was the Balearic ...

trend. The single was released on Trolley Records in 1990. However guitarist Wayne Peters left the band out of frustration with their lack of success and was replaced by Robert Dillam, prompting the name change to Adorable. Adorable's first gig was in Coventry at the Tic Toc club on the night that the first

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

started in January 1991. After recording a 12" of "Sunshine Smile" ("I'll Be Your Saint" and "Breathless" on the B-side) that was pressed up to be released on

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

Pat Collier's 'Money To Burn'

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

, the band received a positive review in the ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''. However, the single was never released. They signed to

Creation Records Creation Records Ltd. was a British independent record label founded in 1983 by Alan McGee, Dick Green, and Joe Foster. Its name came from the 1960s band The Creation, whom McGee greatly admired. The label ceased operations in 1999, although ...

in 1992, and after a UK tour supporting

Curve In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line, but that does not have to be straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point. This is the definition that ...

, they released their first single, a re-recording of "Sunshine Smile", in April of that year. "Sunshine Smile" was ''NME'' 's 'Single of the Week', and topped the

UK Indie Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the rel ...

. The band released "I'll Be Your Saint", "Homeboy" and "

Sistine Chapel Ceiling The Sistine Chapel ceiling ( it, Soffitto della Cappella Sistina), painted in fresco by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. The Sistine Chapel is the large papal chapel built within the Vatican ...

" (another ''NME'' Single of the Week), which all went into the Top 5 in the Indie chart. The band's relationship with much of the rest of the music press though was strained and quickly soured. Their

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

, ''Against Perfection'' was released in March 1993, and peaked at No. 70 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

. The album's original title ''Against Creation'' was dropped 24 hours before they submitted the album to their record label, and reflected their difficult relationship with the label. The band toured the US,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, Australia and Japan. The tour of Australia was later recalled as “disastrous” by the band where the "promoters did a runner on us and never paid us" with the money later recovered but not some of the band members' albums they had with them. The second album, ''Fake'', provided two singles "

Kangaroo Court A kangaroo court is a court that ignores recognized standards of law or justice, carries little or no official standing in the territory within which it resides, and is typically convened ad hoc. A kangaroo court may ignore due process and come ...

" and "Vendetta", which again entered the UK Indie Chart, but the album failed to dent the mainstream UK Albums Chart. With strained relations within the band, they were told had been dropped by Creation (now owned by Sony) before a gig in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

in 1994, where they were supported by the 60 Foot Dolls. The band undertook a European tour before announcing their split onstage at the final gig of the tour in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

in late 1994. A retrospective of their work entitled 'Footnotes' was released by Cherry Red in 2008, featuring extensive liner contributions from all four members of the band where they spoke candidly about their experiences whilst in Adorable. Subsequent to the band's demise, Robert Dillam moved to Scotland where he joined

The Zephyrs The Zephyrs are an Edinburgh, Scotland-based indie band. They have released five albums and two EPs containing their shoegazing folk-rock style. Band history Brothers Stuart (vocals, guitar) and David Nicol (bass) had been playing music toge ...

and is teaching computer networking. Stephen Williams remained in Coventry working in the International Office at the

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020� ...

before moving to Nottingham Trent University where he is currently Director of NTU Global, whilst Fijalkowski went on to form the band Polak, who released two albums on

One Little Indian One Little Independent Records (formerly One Little Indian Records) is an English independent record label. It was set up in 1985 by members of various anarcho-punk bands, and managed by former Flux of Pink Indians bassist Derek Birkett. In ...

. Shortening his name to Pete Fij he joined up with guitarist

Terry Bickers Terence "Terry" Robert Arthur Bickers (born 6 September 1965 in Kensington, London) is an English musician and songwriter. A guitarist and singer, he is best known for his work as the original lead guitarist with The House of Love (from 1986 ...

of fellow former Creation label mate

The House of Love The House of Love are an English alternative rock band, formed in London in 1986 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Guy Chadwick and co-founder and lead guitarist Terry Bickers. They rose to prominence in 1987 with their first single " Shine On", r ...

and

Levitation Levitation (from Latin ''levitas'' "lightness") is the process by which an object is held aloft in a stable position, without mechanical support via any physical contact. Levitation is accomplished by providing an upward force that counteracts ...

under the title of 'Pete Fij / Terry Bickers'; Kevin Gritton is currently Headteacher of a comprehensive school in

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

. On 7 May 2019, the band announced two reunion shows to take place in the UK, one at the Hebden Bridge Trades Club on 31 October 2019 and the other at Bush Hall, London on 2 November 2019. The tour was expanded to include an additional night at the Hebden Bridge Trades Club on the 30 October and an additional night at the Bush Hall on the 1 November. A final show was added at the Scala in London on 3 November.

Discography

Studio albums

* '' Against Perfection'' (1993) No. 70 UK * '' Fake'' (1994)

Compilations

* ''Footnotes: Best of 92–94'' (January 2008, Cherry Red)

Singles

* "Sunshine Smile" (20 April 1992) - US ''Billboard'' Alternative Songs No. 29 * "I'll Be Your Saint" (13 July 1992) * "Homeboy" (26 October 1992) * "Sistine Chapel Ceiling" (January 1993) * "Favourite Fallen Idol" (12 April 1993) * "Kangaroo Court" (April 1994) * "Vendetta" (September 1994) - UK No. 99

References

External links

Robert Dillam's 1993 guitar rig
Guitargeek.com
The Proper Adorable Homepage
(unofficial)
Pete Fijalkowski writes about his time in Adorable
at Creation Records (2000)

at Dead Flowers (Feb 2007)
Interview with Pete Fij and Robert Dillam
at Step On Magazine (June 2015)
Story of Adorable including interviews and press cuttings from 1990-1994
(May 2019) {{DEFAULTSORT:Adorable (Band) Creation Records artists English alternative rock groups British shoegaze musical groups Noise pop musical groups Jangle pop groups Musical groups from Coventry Musical groups established in 1990 Musical groups disestablished in 1994 Musical groups reestablished in 2019 1990 establishments in England